The 42nd ISOCARP Congress took place in Turkey, in the beautiful city of Istanbul, a city that embodies diversity and mixture both geographically and culturally. More than 400 hundred planners, both practising and academics, came together to discuss pressing urban issues and possible strategies to best face the challenges that our cities face. Under the main theme, “Cities between integration and disintegration: opportunities and challenges” five workshops were organised to discuss institutional, social, and cultural implications, as well as cross-sectoral perspectives including market views and theory of planning. Over one hundred papers where presented prompting a lively and rich dialogue between congress participants of 38 different nationalities.